Watch: Liger Cubs Born in China

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What’s a Liger? Well, in the words of Napoleon Dynamite, “It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.”

Okay, so maybe they aren’t technically magic, but a liger is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger, and that’s a pretty rare thing. In the wild ligers don’t exist because the species don’t cross paths, but in captivity the breeding has been known to occur by accident.

It has been reported that there are only 20 ligers in existence today, making the birth of a new liger something quite unique.

On May 13th at a wildlife reserve in eastern China, an African lion and a Manchurian tiger gave birth to a litter of liger cubs. Out of the four cubs, one male and one female survived, while the two other cubs were not born healthy and passed away.
Since the birth the cubs have been struggling to survive but reportedly are on the right track now. When they are fully grown, ligers are known to be the largest cats in existence, as they typically grow to be larger than either parent species.